5 (Specific) Tips For Increasing Your Vocal Reads Using Social Media

One of the more commonly asked questions by Vocal creators is how to use social media to increase your readership, and to drive up your overall reads per day. And while there's a lot of very general advice out there that talks about making your titles pop, or how you need to get images that make people stop scrolling, that isn't very actionable.

I've been at this for several years now, so I figured I'd share some tips based on my time here in the social media trenches, and what specific things you can do to get your work noticed by a bigger audience.

For more information on marketing, growing your social media following, and finding success as a content creator in today's competitive world, stop by my author blog The Literary Mercenary. And for all kinds of articles about geek ephemera, gaming, martial arts, and history, check out the rest of my Vocal archive while you're here!

Tip #1: Tell A Story With Your Post

A big mistake I see a lot of creators make is that, once their content is done, they just toss the link up on social media and wait for it to take off. Maybe they'll attach a line like, "I put a lot of work into this one, guys, I hope you like it!"

Don't do that.

Now, don't misunderstand me. You definitely need to share the links to your content far and wide. They should be on your personal social media pages, they should be on your professional pages (seriously, if you haven't made a Facebook, Twitter, etc. for yourself as a creator, go do that right now), and in all the groups you regularly post to. With that said, your posts need to be more than just a link, a pic, and a title. You need to entice your audience deeper.

For that, you need to tell a story.

Let me give you an example. Earlier this year I put out the article What Was The Satanic Panic? (The Forgotten Witch Hunt of The 1980s). Rather than just dropping that article in the FB groups I'm part of, though, I opened my post with little story about my own brush with the mentality this moral panic left in our cultural consciousness. The short version is that when I was a kid, and I wanted to buy the video game Diablo, my mother staunchly refused because of the demonic imagery. She'd bought into the rumors and conspiracies started during the Satanic Panic about how video games, cartoons, roleplaying games, etc. could get into kids' heads and mess them up. It wasn't until one of the sales clerks, a woman my mom's own age, explained that the game was fine for someone my age that I was allowed to get a copy. She was playing it with her own daughter in the 2-player mode, and they were having a blast, so clearly it wasn't dangerous.

That story entices the audience to stop in and check out what you're talking about. It doesn't have to be as personal as this example, but it gives your audience something they can connect with you over. As a result, they're a lot more likely to click-through and read... and you're less likely to get accused of just being a random spammer.

Tip #2: Start a Conversation

When you start a conversation with your post, you need to get as many other people in on what you're talking about as possible. Structure it with a question, and invite people to leave comments. The more people who comment on your posts, the more they'll be seen, and the more reads you'll get from that enhanced visibility.

As an example, many years ago I took a tour of the Pedway (an underground series of tunnels in downtown Chicago), and afterward I wrote up an article talking about what I'd seen down there. When I started sharing The Chicago Pedway (The True Story Behind Chicago's "Undertown"), I would alter the post to engage the interest of the groups I was sharing it with to provide conversation starters for each of them.

In subreddits that were dedicated to travel, for instance, I started my posts talking about my experience touring the Pedway, and I asked the group to share similar stories about weird places they've seen or heard of that are hiding in plain sight. When I shared the article in writing groups, the conversation starter was asking other folks if they'd used the Pedway or similar locations in their work, and what other odd real-world locations were ripe pickings for fictional settings?

The core article I was sharing didn't change, but starting a conversation provided context and encouraged the post to grow, ensuring it kept getting fresh views.

Tip #3: Don't Shy Away From Controversy

Now, to be clear here, I'm not talking about being controversial just for the sake of being controversial. That is a legitimate way to get traffic, but even if stirring the pot isn't the image you want for your brand, do not be afraid to draw a little flak your way.

As the saying goes, there's no such thing as bad publicity.

For example, I write a lot of advice articles centered around tabletop roleplaying games like Dungeons and Dragons. By its very nature, this kind of advice is not absolute, and it will not be for everyone. And one of the touchiest nerves in the gaming community is the paladin class, since it seems like most players have very distinct images of what these characters must be, and what they must not be.

That didn't stop me from writing 5 Tips For Playing Better Paladins, nor did it stop me from sharing it in social media groups where lots of players congregate. And sure, there were a lot of commenters who vehemently disagreed with everything I said. There were people who said the post was garbage, and that people who did any of the things I suggested were lazy, boring gamers they would never share a table with. But there were also a lot of people who said this was exactly the sort of tips they were looking for, and that they'd had trouble articulating.

At the end of the day it doesn't matter why someone likes, shares, or comments on your post. Whether it's to declare that you're wrong and to hate-share your post so all their friends can also see how wrong you are, or because they love the post and they want to spread it around so more people can get some use out of it, the results are the same. As long as those actions get taken, your visibility goes up, and your reads increase.

Just remember, if people start getting nasty, you're not obligated to read or respond to the comments.

Tip #4: Provide a Call To Action

When you manage to arrest someone's interest long enough for them to see your post, and you want them to do something specific, you need to give them a call to action. In short, use the moment you have your audience's attention to tell them what you want them to do!

For example, say you were on a group dedicated to life hacks, and you shared an article like How To Make an Apple Cider Vinegar Fly Trap. You probably got a few people's attention, but before they can slip away, tell everyone who sees your post to share their own favorite vinegar-based life hack in the comments below. Now you've started a conversation (see the previous tip), and you've turned your soap box into a round robin by telling people to do something.

Your call to action needs to be direct, simple, and something people can do with no more than a click or two. Something as simple as leave a comment, share this on your page, etc. work best because they're things everyone can do with relatively little effort, and which don't cost them anything but a little bit of time.

Tip #5: Always Look For New Places to Share

Another mistake that a lot of creators make is to assume they've found every platform, every group, every forum that their work would be well-received on. However, I can attest that if you perform the same actions in the same places, then you're going to get the same results.

That's why, every few weeks or so, you should explore the social media platforms you're on. Or, if you want to crowdsource the effort, ask the groups you're already in what places they'd recommend you branch out into. Don't just pick groups based on the sheer size of their membership, either; sometimes it's better to have a smaller but more active group than it is to have a huge number of people who barely look at the posts.

A perfect example of this for me is the most popular post I've ever created, What Is The Monster in 'The Ritual'? (A Mythological Theory). Now, if you're not familiar with the movie, it's a horror film that takes place in a dark forest in Scandinavia. And while we get very little explanation of what the monster is, some hints are dropped as to its potential parentage using the old gods of Norse mythology.

When I first completed this piece, I shared it around in several horror groups I'm a member of, and I tossed it out into horror film subreddits. That was where my initial promotion efforts ended... until I thought about it from a different angle. After all, the film was well-regarded in horror circles, but what about in groups dedicated to mythology, Norse paganism, and similar areas? When I started sharing the article in those areas as well, my reads spiked hard, because while a few members had seen the film, many had not, and they were thrilled to hear there was a horror movie out there where the monster was a bastard child of Loki.

Just remember that the same piece of content will appeal to different parts of an audience, and that sometimes you need to do a little sideways thinking about places you can promote that you hadn't covered in your initial release.